Reflecting (and Deflecting) on 2015

I have a love-hate relationship with New Years. That change from one year to the next represents so much, yet nothing at all. Not really. We make big plans on day one and three-hundred and sixty-five days later we lament what a complete failure we were.

It's a dreadful time of year. New Years should be banned. I want to live in one long, continuous year, and for every single day to be a fresh start, an "I'm going to do it right today!" moment.

Yet, here it is again. So, instead of focusing on my numerous failings, I decided to focus on the positives. And there really are a lot of positives. Firstly, I am gorgeous! LOL

On January 1st of 2014, I woke up and said "I'm going to be a writer!". Yes, I'm laughing at 2014 me too. I spent the next four months writing my heart out. I wrote and I wrote, and I wrote and I wrote.

I didn't finish a damn thing.

So, that May, when I discovered the Goodreads MM Romance group's yearly anthology, I grabbed me a prompt for the 2014 Loves Landscape. I figured if anything could make me finish a story, a deadline would.

I nearly dropped out. I nearly threw my story back so many times I lost count, but I didn't. I finished because, well because that is what you do. It was a commitment I made and I didn't want to let the prompt writer down. I didn't want to let the MM group down. And most of all, I didn't want to let myself down.

While I didn't win anything, it was nominated for the Goodreads MM Romance Member's Choice Award for Best Loves Landscape Story and Best Hurt/Comfort.

Now, a year and a half later, Watching Elijah Fall has been on the Amazon's top 20 list for short stories and for LGBT fiction just a few weeks shy of a whole year. That's not half bad. If it is still in the top 20 on January 23 (making it officially a full year) I will celebrate by ... um ... I'm not sure. Getting eight hours sleep or something! :D

As for true 2015 accomplishments, I've never been quite as proud of anything I have written as I am Cold Fingers - a love Story. Part of Buried Desires - a horror double feature with Deadly Sugar. Cold Fingers is a gothic romance in the vein of all those women running from houses gothic romance novels of the 60's and 70's, but hopefully unique to itself.

Buried Desires has been nominated for the Goodreads MM Romance Member's Choice Award for Best Dark Theme, and Cold Fingers has been nominated for for Best Paranormal romance! I about wept!

Working with the very talented Ofelia Gränd on Buried Desires, "seeing" the lovely Al Stewart every day and having the wonderful Debbie McGowan and my Jellies at my back, has made me want to do so much more for 2016.

I am currently working on Cold Fingers 2! It is a direct follow-up to Mrs. Greenberg Sells a Watch (Cold Fingers 1.5) in which my lovely Grant is about to get himself into more trouble than he can handle.

I also have two other stories in the works, but since I am one of those people that need to focus on one story at a time, I will remain silent about them, though there is one I am dying to talk about.

My biggest plan this year, and probably the one I will find the most difficult, is to amp up my blogging, my free reads, giveaways and contests, and all the stuff that is fun but a hell of a lot of work. LOL

2016 is going to be great if 2015 is anything to go by!

HOPE YOUR 2016 IS THE BEST YEAR YET!

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